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Thursday March 28, 2024

MQM chief, others declared proclaimed offenders

By our correspondents
July 30, 2016

Karachi 

An anti-terrorism court declared on Friday Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain, Nadeem Nusrat, Sohail Zaidi and other party leaders as proclaimed offenders in the Shahid Hamid murder case and fixed August 5 as the next date of hearing.

The court directed the prosecution to supply photocopies of the case documents to Minhaj Qazi, the only accused in custody, so he could be indicted.

The court earlier issued non-bailable warrants for the MQM chief, Nadeem Nusrat, Rashid Akhtar alias Shaikh, Athar Hussian and Sohail Zaidi.

As the investigation officer of the case had failed to locate the whereabouts of the absconders, the court had finally declared them proclaimed offenders.

 The officer was directed by the court at a previous hearing to initiate due proceedings under law so that the status of the five other accused for declaring them proclaimed offenders and the order’s significance lies in the fact that once such proceedings were initiated, the moveable and immovable properties of the accused can be confiscated in favour of the state.

The charge sheet for Shahid Hamid’s murder against Minhaj Qazi alias Asad was presented before the ATC at an earlier hearing. It stated that the accused had nominated the MQM chief and other senior leaders of the party as the people on whose directives he had murdered Hamid.

The investigation officer, Sarwar Commando, informed the court that Hussain, Nusrat, Athar, and Sohail were absconding, whereas the whereabouts of another accused, Rashid Akhtar alias Shaikh, were unknown.

In the charge sheet, Qazi stated to be one of the shooters. It stated that Qazi and Saulat Mirza, along with two accomplices, had opened fired on the victim’s car with Kalashnikovs.

The Shahid Hamid murder case was referred to Judge Mohammed Jawaid Alam of the ATC-V. The same judge previously time and again issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the absconders and conducted hearing against Qazi.

According to the prosecution, the then SHO of Gulbahar police station, Mohammad Aslam Khan popularly known as Chaudhry Aslam, had arrested Saulat Mirza in December 1998 at the Karachi airport. During investigation, Mirza had confessed about killing the former KESC chief and had revealed the names of his accomplices. Saulat Mirza has been hanged as he was proved by the prosecution as one the killers and an ATC had awarded him capital punishment in 1998. He was hanged last year in May.

The prosecution alleged that the offence was carried out to avenge the removal of MQM supporters from the KESC by the victim.

Qazi was produced before a judicial magistrate concerned on May 14 where Hamid’s widow and son identified him among several suspects as one of the shooters involved in the murder.

During the identification parade, suspect Qazi had informed the magistrate that he had been subjected to torture and claimed that he had not even been allowed to change his clothes since his detention in February.

He also contested the identification parade and said his photographs were being showed on private television channels almost on a daily basis and anyone could easily identify him. However, the magistrate interrupted him and told him that he could raise this issue before the trial court.

Qazi was arrested by the Rangers on February 3. He was produced before an ATC concerned on May 14 that endorsed the apprehension order for 90-day preventive detention for interrogation over his alleged involvement in terrorism cases.

Later, he was handed over to the police who formally arrested him in the Shahid Hamid murder case while obtaining remand from the ATC concerned.

Judicial Magistrate South Anees Rehman Buriro conducted the identification parade on May 14 during which the widow of the deceased Shahnaz Hamid (who herself served as a bureaucrat) and son Omar Shahid Hamid (a police officer by profession) deposed before the court that Minhaj Qazi was one of the four hitmen who carried out the killing.

The two witnesses while describing details of the murder said that on July 5, 1997, they had heard gunshots shortly after Hamid had left his house for office. The two witnesses further said the moment they came out they saw four men firing at Hamid’s car with Kalashnikov assault rifles. They had also identified Saulat Mirza who was executed on May 12, 2015.

Both eyewitnesses recalled that Hamid was working against corruption and reorganising the power utility, and that was why some people targeted him.

The two claimed that as the MQM had a powerful role in the then Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, the representatives of the workers’ union along with a few MQM ministers had teamed up against the deceased.

They went on to say that several MQM leaders including Dr Farooq Sattar, Waseem Akhtar, Nasreen Jalil and her husband had extended threats to Shahid Hamid.  According to them, Dr Farooq Sattar, Waseem Akhtar and late Shoaib Bukhari had also insulted deceased Hamid during a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House. The same charges have also surfaced on prime time television by Hamid’s widow and son during different talk shows. However Dr Farooq Sattar, Waseem Akhtar and other leaders had denied the charges, terming them as baseless.